Moan, Moan, Moan - 2011

[Gunilla]

Ulla, I hope your plants will recover.  After two weeks of exceptionally warm wheather for this time of year we now have frost every night.  It went down to -4 C here and the flowers on my magnolias are all brown .

[t00lie]

Thanks Dave. Natives, which is OK, although fewer would have been good. I notice a depression in the grass border in front of my house which used to contain a tree. All the streets around have trees 30 - 40 metres apart. The ones in my section are deciduous magnolias. Mine is missing! Further up the street are callistemon and round the corner are pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa). Don't fancy any of those. Would prefer a kuari, but I suspect it may grow too large? Moreton Bay fig? They have their own gravity, so need to think of an attractive small tree that wouldn't look out of place. I like sweet gum (Liquidambar spp.), which is planted in some of the borders at the Botany Shopping Centre, but maybe not? Any suggestions?

Anthony
I'm not sure how the system works in Auckland--i suspect that you may need to check with the 'Supercity' authorities --They may well supply/plant a 'suitable' tree.

Cheers Dave.

[Anthony Darby]

I'm thinking Michelia "Bubbles". NZ bred and buttered even if it is somewhat Oriental. It would fit in with the locals.

[Ulla Hansson]

Thank you for your compassion. It is too early to tell if plants have died. Many plants have the ability to re-shoot. All Cypripedium and Dysosmor have been under protection, they have no damage. But it is both ugly and boring when you have to wait for a second round of leaves and shot.

[mark smyth]

Fermi's Will has given me his cold  First cold in about 2 years grrrr

[Hoy]

Fermi's Will has given me his cold  First cold in about 2 years grrrr

So you detest nothing to keep cold in the heat?

[Anthony Darby]

Fermi's Will has given me his cold  First cold in about 2 years grrrr

Didn't know you could inherit a cold Mark!

[fermi de Sousa]

Fermi's Will has given me his cold  First cold in about 2 years grrrr

Will said to say he has a cough not a cold! It must've been the windy weather at the Giant's Causeway, Mark!
Hope you get well soon, those swifts will need monitoring!
cheer
fermi (in Novotel, Barcelona!)

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Dave. Natives, which is OK, although fewer would have been good. I notice a depression in the grass border in front of my house which used to contain a tree. All the streets around have trees 30 - 40 metres apart. The ones in my section are deciduous magnolias. Mine is missing! Further up the street are callistemon and round the corner are pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa). Don't fancy any of those. Would prefer a kuari, but I suspect it may grow too large? Moreton Bay fig? They have their own gravity, so need to think of an attractive small tree that wouldn't look out of place. I like sweet gum (Liquidambar spp.), which is planted in some of the borders at the Botany Shopping Centre, but maybe not? Any suggestions?

Anthony
I'm not sure how the system works in Auckland--i suspect that you may need to check with the 'Supercity' authorities --They may well supply/plant a 'suitable' tree.

Cheers Dave.

Kauri can grow to 50 metres plus. I believe Tane Mahuta is about 51 metres and thought to be some 2000 years old.

[Graham Catlow]

  bug****
I can't believe it and I don't know what to write. Perhaps the pictures will tell their own story.
What do you think has vandalised this.
Cypripedium lichiangense

[Anthony Darby]

That must be heart breaking Graham? Slug? Caterpillar? I know how special that plant is. I never managed to grow it far less flower it.

[Maggi Young]

Oh Graham, that is ghastly. Slug or snail, we think, since the damage is "central" so to speak.
Slug pellets to protect the stem is essential now, since damage there would be a killer.

Our sympathies to your predicament.

[Tony Willis]

Graham

that is terrible. I think this is a favourite of slugs as mine was eaten of at the neck last year and I lost all the top growth.
I see mine now has two tiny shoots developing from the roots.

I put slug bait around them all on Sunday.

[Graham Catlow]

Thanks, Anthony, Maggi, and Tony,
Slug pellets it is! I put some out last night around some other things never thinking this would be a tasty treat.
I had a horrible thought that it might be vine weevil which would have been a more difficult issue. But then the edges would have been chewed not the centre I think.

If it had only taken the leaf and not the flower it wouldn't have been so bad.

[Anthony Darby]

Yes. I think Maggi's right. Some mollusc. You don't always see a trail. I would go out with a torch and check.